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A recent Verizon commercial shows a father trying to lose weight
for his daughter's wedding.

As he stands in line at a food cart to place his lunch order, he
looks at his phone, which displays the high calorie content of
the burger, and swaps his order for a salad.

At the end of the 30-second montage of exercise routines and
healthy snacks, he fits slimly into his tux, and his daughter
proudly hugs him.

Everyone loves a happy ending. But do we really need our phones
to tell us that a salad is healthier than a burger?

While most people know the healthy merits of salads and the
caloric pitfalls of burgers, we actually do benefit from
weight-loss apps that remind us. That's because the best way to
lose weight is keeping track of the calories we consume, and apps
make that easy, according to Karen Grothe, a psychologist at the
Mayo Clinic who specializes in obesity and physical fitness.
Grothe said apps have helped many of her patients lose weight.

Apps keep track of food intake better than most people could on
their own. They eliminate the need to carry around information
regarding meals' calorie content or paper and pen, which could be
stigmatizing, Grothe said.

If you want to lose weight, "you could hire a registered
dietician to sit around with you," and monitor every meal, joked
Andrew Rosenthal, chief strategy officer for iPhone app The Eatery. But, in
Rosenthal's words, "that's really expensive and socially
awkward."

The Eatery app allows users to snap and upload photos of their
food to share with other users. They comment on how healthy the
meal is, and when there's a consensus, the result is posted.
(It's usually very accurate, the team says.) This helps users
make better food choices by learning from each other to assess
food options more accurately. The Eatery is not just for people
who are trying to lose weight. Many aim to eat more veggies,
limit fats or go organic, for example.

While users are submitting this information to manage their own
meals, The Eatery has been collecting anonymized data from the
submissions and is hoping to analyze the 10 million photos of
food they've accumulated. The goal is to figure out the triggers
that make people's diets go off track, Rosenthal said. Then,
based on this information, the app could warn people when they
might be more likely to make a bad decision, such as a late-night
pizza.

Another benefit of these apps is their social function: Trying to
lose weight with other people proves to be easier, Grothe said.
"Realizing that you are not alone in your struggles to manage
weight can be comforting, and patients can learn from other
people's experiences," she said. Using online-based tools also
helps relieve any social stigma or tension people often feel
about discussing their weight in person.

Lose It!, one of the most
popular calorie-counting apps (for Android and iOS), allows users
to connect with people they know as well as with strangers over
the app and its many discussion forums. People can choose how
much information to share, and with whom.

According to the Lose It! website, users have collectively shed
more than 11 million pounds, and 96 percent of active users lose
weight. People can log on both through the app and the website to
manage their information. Connecting with friends provides
support and encourages sharing of ideas, like recipes and
exercise routines.